The Journal of Sarah
by Lauren Chamberlain
Summary: Sarah Moore is missing. Before she disappeared, she began keeping a journal. Will it hold the secret to finding her?
1. Prologue

May 20th

Detective Jonah Rodriguez is on a case. A little girl had disappeared and her parents were desperate to find her. The local police couldn't find any evidence of kidnapping, but considering that the girl was seventeen and had been seen with strange bruises at school, it was assumed that she had run away. Her parents didn't believe that, though, so Detective Rodriguez had been called in. He works individual cases until they're solved. It's been his passion since he retired from the main police force.

The girl's name is Sarah Michelle Moore. She's currently seventeen. She's five feet seven inches tall, has long, brown hair, brown eyes, and is Caucasian. She was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia last August. Her parents, Rodrick and Marie Moore, are divorced. Sarah's father is a hard core alcoholic, and her mother is a nurse at the local hospital. Safe to say, Sarah spent her days alone. Her parents were either too drunk or too overloaded on work to be around for her.

On May 20th, three weeks after Sarah's disappearance, Detective Rodriguez visits Sarah's home where she and her father live. The outside of the house is nice. Painted a pretty sky blue color, vines crawl up the trellises on the side of the building. There's a small porch out front with chairs on it.

Detective Rodriguez knocks on the front door, and Mister Moore answers. He smells faintly of whiskey, like he'd been hung over from the previous night and hadn't bothered to shower. Rodrick Moore smiles, glad that the detective had turned up. "Ah, Detective! Please tell me you have news of my daughter. Did you find her?"

"Unfortunately, sir, no. But I'd like to look through her personal effects, to see if she was suspecting anyone of following her around, that kind of thing. It may give me an idea of where she's been taken." Personally, the detective just wants to know the girl better and see if perhaps she'd been killed by her parents. He doubts he'll find anything, but at least he'll get to know Sarah better.

Mister Moore replies, "of course, of course! Come in!" and gestures the detective to come inside. He steps in and looks around the living room. It's dark and simply decorated, but clean. It has a lot of older furniture, like an old wicker rocking chair and some antique looking tables. They've probably been in this house since it was built. "You wanted to see her room, didn't you, Detective?"

"Yes, sir," Jonah says softly, looking around as he's taken through the single level house. Sarah's room is at the back of the house, second to last room. The other room must be her father's. Rodriguez goes into Sarah's room, smiling a bit. It reminds him of his daughter's room. The walls are a dark, midnight blue, and there's white Christmas lights hung around the ceiling and the single window. The window is opposite the door, and the bed is on the right. Her closet, an easel, and a dresser are on the left. Under her window is a desk with a few pictures of friends and family on it, as well as some other little trinkets. The window itself has a nice view of the woods behind the Moore house.

Mister Moore leaves Detective Rodriguez to look through Sarah's room, and he sits at the desk. He opens up her laptop, using a hacking tool to get into her email and instant messengers. He doesn't find any messages of use. She seems to have had internet friends, but she never made plans with any of them to run away to come visit them. She also never mentions anything about being beaten or hit by her father. She does keep extensive documents on her hallucinations, though. Most are just odd things that only pop up once. But one hallucination pops up multiple times. It's a hairless, humanoid figure with elongated arms and a mouth that can come unhinged. He finds this disturbing, but then again, Sarah has also seen rotting corpses walking around. Terrifying visions seem to be normal for her.

He sets her computer down since he didn't find anything of use on it, then checks her phone. Nothing there, either. After that, he looks through the desk. Maybe she hid a diary somewhere. There's nothing of interest in her desk, or under her bed, or in her dresser. He checks under her pillow, but there's only a little velveteen rabbit. Then he checks her schoolbag and… bingo. There's a green spiral notebook with pages sticking out that seems to have personal writings. The papers have dates on them, and seem to detail her daily life. He sits back at the desk, then gets to desk reading.

What he finds… He doesn't think he'll ever look at a shadow in the corner of his eye ever again.


	2. August 4th

August 4th

My name is Sarah Michelle Moore. I'm sixteen years old, and I go to Rael City High School. I live with my mom, Marie, and my dad, Rodrick. Mom is a nurse, and Dad works at the bank.

I'm starting this journal because I was recently diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Basically, I see and hear things that aren't really there. My therapist said that keeping a journal might help, since it seems like some of my hallucinations are in reaction to my emotional state and how I tend to keep them bottled up. He also said that it might help if I write down or draw my hallucinations. Some of them have been scary, and some of them haven't. Hearing things scares me almost as much as hearing them.

I go to school soon. I'm going to take my journal with me. I haven't told my friends about my diagnosis, but then again, I don't have very many friends. Most of my friends left because they thought I was "too weird" to hang around. At least now I can tell them _why_ I'm looking _around_ my friends instead of at them, or why I'm talking to things they don't hear.

Okay, it's time to go to school, now. I'll write more if I get some free time.

* * *

I'm in my homeroom now. I like the classes I'm taking this year. I'm taking geology, art three, choir, English, computers two, advanced weight training, and psychology. All classes that I think I'll enjoy, even though I'm not a big fan of sports.

I caught up with a few of my old friends, and they say that they miss me. I'm going to tell them about my diagnosis during lunch. I think the summer made them realize that even if I'm "weird," they still like me and want to be my friend.

Bell's ringing. Got to go.

* * *

So, I'm home now. School went okay. My friends asked me a lot of questions about my schizophrenia. Some of them, I couldn't answer because I didn't know what to say. I need to ask Doc. My friends said that they hope that I'll get better, and I told them it wasn't like a cold. You don't just get better in time. It's a cancer. It won't go away until there's a cure, and right now, all we have is treatments. That's why I've been taking a couple different pills. My hallucinations haven't gone away or been reduced yet, but I am having an easier time focusing.

I really need to pick out some clothes. Even more, I need to go shopping. I need new clothes so bad. All of mine are boring. Just jeans and t-shirts. It sucks. I really need some dresses, maybe some shirt and blouse combos.

Ugh, my hand is starting to cramp. I'm out for now. I'll write to you later, if I find something I want to write about. Hopefully the Doc enjoys reading this.


	3. August 20th

August 20th

I know it's been a few weeks since I wrote in this, but I've been busy, honest! School's been on my ass like crazy and it _sucks_. I've been getting more used to it, though, which is good. I'm getting to be okay with Algebra II, English is… somewhat okay. I'm loving my science class. I'm always drawing or writing about my hallucinations and stuff, when I can tell they're not real, at least. Sometimes it's hard to discern the difference, but the visuals seem to be kind of… wobbly or jiggly, kind of like the way you see heat rise from the concrete in the summer times.

Sometimes my friends ask me what I'm looking at, and I don't know what to tell them. I don't think they want to know about the zombie chomping on its own hand or the headless cat that jumped up on the table.

Mom is calling me for dinner. I'll be back in a bit.

Okay, so I'm back in my room and at my desk. It's pretty outside tonight. You can actually see the stars for once, above the trees. I can hear the crickets and cicadas playing their songs. There's a pond out in the woods, and I can hear the frogs calling to each other. Sometimes I see deer and rabbits on the edge of the woods, and it's pretty nice. Actually, I see one now.

Oh my god. I don't think that's a deer. I don't know what it is, but it's not a normal animal. I think it's just another fucked up hallucination, but it's not going away when I blink. It's some kind of… humanoid thing, and it's just standing there, just inside the edge of the woods. It's arms are too long and are holding up it's torso, but it looks like it has normal legs. Whatever it is is naked, and it's eyes are too big. It has a bunch of teeth and it's jaw looks too big for the rest of it.

I looked closer, and it's eyes are _glowing_. Okay, I'm done. Closing my curtains and going to go watch TV with Mom and Dad. Maybe I'll bring this up at my next therapy session.

After I watched TV with Mom and Dad for a while, I looked back out my bedroom window. That thing is gone. Must have been a hallucination, after all. I'll have to add it to the list of creepy shit I've been seeing. I probably shouldn't tell Mom and Dad, though. I think they'd be freaked out if they knew what I was seeing all the time. Hell, _I_ get freaked out by what I see!

Anyways, I… I think I'm going to go to bed. Hopefully my hallucinations won't be in my dreams, too. Those are the scariest because you can't run or scream or save yourself before they get you.


End file.
